In this lesson we’re going to start taking a look at suspended chords; specifically, the suspended fourths. A suspended fourth is a chord in which we’ve removed the third that is normally found in the chord, and replaced it with a fourth. So your basic chord structure would look like this: I, IV, V. An example would be Gsus4, which would look like this: G (I), C (IV), D (V). Remember, those are the notes in the G chord, not separate chords.
This is part 1 of 2 in the Essentials of Slide Guitar course.
This is part 1 of 2 in the Essentials of Strumming & Rhythm course.
00:00:00 Introduction
00:08:12 Stick Notation and Counting
00:32:47 Rhythm Fractioning
00:41:28 Strum Choices A
00:49:38 Strum Choices B
00:57:51 Strum Choices C
01:08:31 Strum Choices D
01:17:25 I-V-IV Theory Lesson
01:26:59 Chord Progression: Old School Rock and Roll
01:33:09 Bonus Strum
01:39:27 Chord Progression: Texas Flood
01:46:58 Chord Progression: Pride and Joy
01:50:41 Chord Progression: The Last Time
This is part 2 of 2 the Easy Blues Riffs course.
This is part 1 of 2 the Easy Blues Riffs course.
This is part 2 of 2 in the Essentials of Slide Guitar course.
In this lesson we’ll give you a few ideas for how you can use sus9 chords to create cool sounding alternate guitar parts, which are really helpful when you’re playing with another guitar and want to be a bit different.
If you need a refresher on the sus9 chords, you might want to checkout these lessons first:
This is part 2 of 2 in the Essentials of Strumming & Rhythm course.
00:00:00 Chord Bass Notes Related to I-IV-V
00:17:30 E Minor and C Major Diatonic Scales Theory Lesson
00:22:25 A Minor and C Major Diatonic Scales Theory Lesson
00:27:13 E Minor, G Major, A Minor and C Major: Diatonic Scales Examples
00:39:19 Chord Progression: Octopus’s Garden
00:56:20 Chord Progression: Old School Rock and Roll Option 1 and 2
01:07:03 Chord Progression: La Bamba
01:16:17 Chord Progression: The Last Time
Here’s the board lesson to go with the sus9 chords practical lesson. In a sus9 chord, you’re replacing the third with a fourth.
There are two different types of suspended chords: sus9 and sus4. If you’re wondering where the “9” comes from, don’t let it throw you off, it is simply the “2” from the scale, but up one octave. For this reason sometimes you’ll see these as sus2 and sometimes you’ll see them as sus9.
After you’ve watched this lesson, you should checkout Colin’s board lesson on the same subject.
In this lesson we'll learn the ultimate guitar solo scale! It is the pentatonic minor scale, covering three positions and three octaves, which gives you a great amount of reach all in one nice fluid pattern!
Below you'll find the tab for this scale.
In the last lesson, we covered how to play the ultimate blues solo scale. If you need a refresher, you can check it out here.
In today's lesson we're going to take a look at the most important note in any guitar scale - the tonic. The tonic is the anchor point that you can use to transpose that scale pattern into any key you choose... talk about powerful! That note also happens to be the single best choice for starting or ending a solo. In our ultimate blues solo scale, the tonic shows up three times, so you'd do well to learn each of the positions and practice ending at each one.
Below you'll find the tab again for this scale. If you've got questions or comments, I'd love to see them at the bottom of the page!
In today's lesson, we're going to cover how to apply I-IV-V theory to your pentatonic scale. Sounds pretty technical, but I hope you find this useful. Plus, once you see how the patterns work, it won't seem technical at all!
In a previous lesson, we covered how to play the ultimate blues solo scale. If you need a refresher, you can check it out here.
In today's lesson, we're going to cover how to add a chromatic passing note between the IV and V notes in the scale. Sounds pretty technical, but once you hear it in action, you'll probably recognize it pretty quick. This particular note is the most common modification you'll find, and is super common in the blues - in fact, it is often referred to as the blues note. Check it out, and see how you can work it into your solos!
Below you'll find the tab again for this scale. If you've got questions or comments, I'd love to see them at the bottom of the page!
Here are the three chromatic passing notes that can really help you spice up your playing. This lesson should be viewed in conjunction with the practical lesson on the same subject.
Triads are three-note chords. Inversions refer to the various ways you can arrange those three notes, and “first inversion” refers to the standard arrangement, which starts with the root note of the triad, goes to the third, and ends on the fifth. For instance, the notes in a C+ triad is C-E-G.
If you haven’t gone through the lessons prior to this one, you may find yourself a little stumped… if that is the case, please go back and review the others leading up to this – all of them! :).
In this lesson we’ll cover some cool bass riffs, and how you can make a bass-player only version of Rocky Mountain Way. You’re gonna have fun with this!
It would be best to review the lessons on the shuffle and the triplet before attacking this one, and you should also know your pentatonic minor scale.
Chord substitution is when you swap one chord with another that is very similar to it. In practice, this is usually accomplished by adding a note or two, which helps give the chord just a little extra character that it would not have had otherwise.
In this lesson, we'll build on the dominant 7th shape that we learned earlier.
Here's a quick introduction to one way you can use I IV V, although there is a TON more to say on this topic. The guitar is tuned to 4ths, except for the G to B string, which is a major third. That means that every time you switch strings, staying on the same fret, you're moving up (or down) a fourth.
For example, on 6th string, 5th fret, you have an A. Move up one string to the 5th string, and you have the D. Now, move up two frets, and you find the E, and there's your I IV V in the key of A, the three most important chords in that key. This works in both major and minor keys.
Learning a bit about I IV V can really help you reduce how much you need to memorize your fretboard, because you'll already know the relationships of the notes nearby. Cool stuff!
In this lesson we'll learn the E7 chord, in a couple different shapes, and how to shift that chord into 12 new chords, by transposing the chord shape to other places on the fretboard. You can also call this chord E dominant 7th. The basic shape of the open E7 is 020100.
Understanding the fractional breakdown of rhythms is super important for all musicians… make sure you really get this one clear in your mind! This lesson should be viewed along with the written board lesson.
Understanding the fractional breakdown of rhythms is super important for all musicians… make sure you really get this one clear in your mind! When you’ve completed this lesson, move on to the practical application.
Here’s a valuable theory lesson on perfect inversion!
Here’s the A diatonic major scale, in the open position. All of the open scales are a little bit different, due to the constraint of using open notes. Therefore, it is worthwhile learning each one!
Following the first lesson on picking arpeggio patterns, here we’re going to develop the ‘hybrid’ picking style a bit further. You can try this technique out on acoustic or electric guitar, but if you are using an electric, it is best to stick to a clean sound, at least until you’ve got the patterns down.
Here’s one way of conveying the patterns discussed in the video. Anything in (brackets) should be played at the same time.
Pattern 1: R (321)
Pattern 2: R 3 (12)
Pattern 3: (R2) 3 R 1 2 3
Pattern 4: R (32) (R1) 2 3 2
Pattern 5: R (32) (R1) 234
Bonus points if you can figure out how many times I said “um” in this lesson!
In this lesson we’ll look at some more fence sitting chords (see also the Dominant 7th lesson). The reason I call these chords fence-sitters is because they’re neither major, nor minor. Thus, they can go either way, depending on the context of the chords around them.
Here’s another open scale for you – the C Diatonic Major scale. Keep in mind that while you can move the closed scales around easily, it is the open scales that are all slightly different from each other, because of the restriction of having the nut right there.
In this lesson we’ll cover the ultimate solo scale… the three position pentatonic climb. This scale is an awesome one to use, because it gives you a great range of high and low notes all nicely integrated in an easy-to-use scale pattern.
Once you’ve mastered this scale, the next step is to learn how to add chromatic passing notes to it.
In this lesson you’ll learn the G diatonic major scale, in the open position. This is an important scale, and correlates very closely with the E minor scales, both pentatonic and diatonic.
Here’s the tab for the scale:
Understanding your relative major and minor chords, and how you can use them in chord scales, is a pretty important topic. You’ll see chord scales used fairly often in all kinds of popular music… and after going through this lesson, you’ll be using them too!